“……………Please accept this letter as an official notification of the Commitments and confirmation and assurance of how we intend to continue to do business together going forward (see below).

Here is a summary outlining the new commitments.

You may set different room rates and offer different conditions and availability on different OTAs

This means you don’t have to offer the same room rates, conditions and availability on Booking.com as other OTAs. This gives you greater flexibility to manage your offering across distribution channels.

You may offer lower rates or better conditions through offline channels (such as telephone bookings and walk-ins) provided you do not publish or market offline rates online

We have had feedback that our partners want the ability to discount through offline reservation channels without having to give us the same or better rates. From now on, we will not require the same or better rates in respect of rooms sold via offline channels, provided that you do not market those offline rates online (e.g. on your website or on meta-search sites).

There is no restriction on the unpublished room rates or conditions you may offer, provided you do not market those rates online

We understand it may be important for you to offer special rates to your loyal customers through non-public channels (such as closed-user groups) or to negotiate special rates on a bilateral basis (e.g. a special private group discount). Through the Commitments we have clarified this position.

Freedom to market to all prior guests, even if they booked their stay through Booking.com

We have made it clear through our Commitments that nothing in our agreement with you shall prevent you from directly contacting prior customers of your accommodation, regardless of whether they booked their stay with you directly or through Booking.com. The only thing we would like to ask you is to comply with applicable (privacy and data protection) laws in your contact and communication with the customers.

Parity with your own direct online channels and some availability

Going forward under the amended provisions, you are still contracted to give Booking.com parity in respect of room rates and conditions offered on your own website (which includes meta-search sites such as Trivago, Kayak or Google Hotel Finder when they redirect the consumer to your own website for booking). As set out above, we no longer require you to give us the same availability as our competitors, but in order to give meaning to our relationship, we require at least some availability in respect of all rooms and room-rate types.

Pursuant to the Commitments, our contract with you is partly changed in respect of the relevant provisions (e.g. parity and direct marketing to guests). The relevant provisions that have been amended as a result of our Commitments (and shall apply pursuant to your continued use of our service) are available through the following link. The rest of the contract remains unchanged.

The Commitments (and the relevant changes to our relationship) will take effect as of 1 July 2015. With your continued use of our service after 1 July 2015, we trust and assume that you accept and acknowledge the changes made to our contract following the Commitments.

Booking.com thinks that these changes are good for your business, our business and consumers: you now have significantly greater flexibility to differentiate room rates, conditions and availability across different channels. ………………….

No specific action is required from you. Should you have any questions about this letter, please do not hesitate to reach out to your contact within Booking.com who will be happy to assist.………………………………………..